The “STAR” Drill

Most people who want to prove they can shoot, especially when it comes to comparing to what the professionals do, go about it from the complete opposite perspective. By the opposite perspective, I mean they see someone in an NBA game miss an open 3 point shot and say “Why are they in the NBA? Even I could make that shot!” Then they go to the YMCA the next day, go to the 3 point line in a clean dry shirt, swish a shot saying “See! It’s easy, that guys a bum!” They never take into consideration that player that missed his shot in a game approached it from a fatigued level while the fan approached it from a fresh legs level. I’m not giving excuses for NBA players missing wide open threes because they should absolutely be hitting them. I’m just saying the next time you want to see if you’re three point shot is really that good, put it to this test: The Star Drill.

The Star Drill consists of taking 5 shots from 5 spots beyond the 3-point arc. The key is to mimic in game fatigue as much as possible by 1.) Getting your own rebounds and 2.) Sprinting from spot to spot. Anything less is only cheating yourself and when you miss that game winning three, don’t be surprised.

This should be part of every serious basketball players training regimen as well. Yeah you can his three after three during warm ups but can you hit the three that puts your team ahead by 1 point when theres 5 seconds left on the game clock? If you can hit all 5 shots in the stars drill, you’ll be building the focus, mental toughness, and not thinking just doing clutch behavior that it takes to hit THE shot. Especially when you’ve hit all four and you’re approaching the fifth shot, now, the pressure’s on. Let’s say you’ve performed the star drill 6 times already only hitting between 1 and 4 of the 5 shots, now you’re on the 7th go around, you’re tired yet you’ve managed to hit 4/4 and the 5th and final shot is approaching. The way you handle the pressure that comes with knocking down the fifth shot with a perfect record on the line is the same place you need to go when the real game is on the line.

A similar rule of the fifth shot goes for the fan who thinks they can hit the wide open three like an NBA player. Only difference, I’m not expecting you to strive for hitting all 5 shots like serious players do. But next time you want to see if you can hit a wide open shot like a real basketball player, perform the star drill, go hard through the first four shots so you’re fatigued by the 5th and make that one the one that counts.

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About The Author

Hi, my name is Nehemiah. You can call me Marcus. I say "Last name Marcus" all the time because it's how most professional athletes, specifically basketball players, are addressed in the game. For instance "James, Read More...